I thought it might be neat to be able to control the RGB Mood Light by IR remote control.  So when I laid out the PCB I added the option to have such a feature.

However, I haven't written any software to support this feature, it isn't secretly hidden in the source code and I have no plans currently to add support for it in the software.

So what are JP1, R8 and C3?

JP1 is the location for a IR receiver IC such as a TSOP4838

R8 and C3 are the filter components that you will see in the datasheet for many IR receiver IC's.  Typically you might use a 100R resistor and 10uF capacitor, but go by the recommendation in the datasheet for the specific device.

Adding these components will do nothing because the code in the PIC currently shipped doesn't support the feature.

However, just because I don't have plans to do it there is nothing to stop the more adventurous amongst you having a go at writing a version of RGB code that does use it.

Anything else?

Well, I thought about using an IR receiver on there but if you wanted to write your own code you can use the input to the PIC to make it do all sorts of things.

Here's some ideas:

Light to music - feed an audio trigger in to it.

If you use a PIC12F675 or 12F683 on the PCB instead of the 12F629, the PIC input connected to JP1 can be set to analogue and connected to the internal ADC of these devices.

Then you might hook up a thermistor and have a light that changes colour according to temperature.

Or connect a light sensor so the Mood light comes on when it gets dark automatically.

Pete
Picprojects
December 2010